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HERS (Higher Education Resource Services) is a leadership development organization dedicated to creating and sustaining a dynamic network of women and gender-diverse leaders in higher education. Our programs serve emerging and established leaders from all institution types and all backgrounds. HERS is unique in that we prioritize equity in leadership as a way to create transformative opportunities for all college and university campus constituents.
Founded in 1972, HERS proudly serves as a network for higher education leaders and is building a repository of data and resources for leaders who seek to advance their careers, and their leadership practice in higher education.
For over 50 years, HERS has made great strides with respect to increasing the number of women and gender-diverse leaders working to transform higher education. However, there is much work to be done to improve equity in higher education, whether based on gender, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, or other criteria. HERS plans to continue with our efforts to expand excellence, access, and equity in higher education for the next 50 years and beyond, until there is equity in opportunities and outcomes for everyone.
Through programs, services, and research, HERS creates and sustains a diverse community of women and gender-diverse leaders who serve as bold agents of inclusive and equitable change for higher education.
HERS will transform higher education by serving as the premier equity-minded leadership development organization for women and gender-diverse leaders.
Our core values exist to guide every aspect of the organization’s work, from programs and research to establishing a strong network for all who are interested in gender equity in higher education.
As part of the HERS 2022-2027 strategic plan—Excellence, Access & Equity—our goals are to:
What makes HERS leadership development programs unique?
HERS leadership programs continue to be distinguished from others in two important ways:
1) We focus on the experiences and expertise of women and gender-diverse higher education professionals and this is reflected in our program curricula as well as in the strong, nationwide professional network we work to build and nurture for our alums.
2) We center questions of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, nationality, ability, religion, and other salient categories of identity when examining leadership trajectories, models of leadership, and perceptions of leaders(hip). We begin with the premise that structural inequities in our society and within our institutions affect us differently based on identities that we claim and those that others attribute to us. We understand that the identities we hold can greatly impact our opportunities to lead, how we lead, and others’ perceptions of our leadership.
In HERS’s professional development programs, discussion of social categories of identity are never secondary, never an afterthought, never an endnote, nor an appendix. Explorations of the connections between identity, structural inequities, and leadership are integral to HERS’s program curricula and such exploration is critical work for leaders who seek to transform higher education.
As one of our partners, you can be a leader behind much-needed change in the educational sector. Support for our programs drives leadership equity, enabling institutions to better support an increasingly diverse student body and better prepare their students to create a more equitable society.
